It's an interesting concept: find a con artist and follow him around, laughing uproariously at the poor schmucks he swindles. And provided you can suspend disbelief (and moral sensibility), Skyler Stone and company pull it off fairly well in Comedy Central's Con.
I hadn't seen the program before this because it's on at an awkward time for me. I've seen the ads for it; Skyler Stone driving with a black bar over his eyes, jumping on a comped hotel bed and pigging out in the guise of a Senator. It seemed humorous enough in the ads, but not enough to tempt me out of my sleep schedule. After viewing this week's episode, I'm glad it's on so late, if only to reduce the potential number of copy-cat con amateurs.
This week Stone set out to get his posse a free ski weekend. But first, he pulls a gratuitous penny-ante scam, as he scrounges in the local Mickey D's garbage, looking for a cheeseburger receipt. He finds one that specifies "no pickles, no onions," and parlays the crumpled receipt into a "free" burger. There's no ground for argument here—he stole a cheeseburger. (And I wonder how many identical thefts will occur next week, as unscrupulous viewers imitate Stone?)
As for the ski weekend scam, it starts with Skyler promoting a "boy band" (Stone himself fronting, with fellow con artists Dave Keyes and Joey Morgs singing backup and Zach Johnson as manager) purportedly doing a Public Service Announcement video for California Tourism. "Governor Schwarzenegger wants people to think of California as a place to ski," Stone tells the publicist at Mt. Baldy Ski Resort. "We've got this boy band, Ice Train, really hot in Norway and just about to break in the States..."
Once the hook is set, Stone then approaches a couple of friends for help to put the "band" on a credible footing. A bedroom sound-studio artist massages the boys' miniscule singing abilities, creating a CD to which they will lip-sync. An artist friend slaps together an enormous plywood triptych mural for the group to "perform" in front of for the cameras. A secondary scam nets the boys some personalized choreography.
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Article comments
1 - Dave Nalle
But the key is that no one is actually scammed here. Everyone gets paid scale after the fact, plus they get free publicity for their business or their budding career as a stripper.
Dave
2 - DrPat
Does McDonalds (whose name and logos are not shown) get any benefit from providing not just one cheeseburger from an LA drive-through, but however many hundreds of similarly-scammed meals from restaurants across the US?
How about Burger King, Wendy's, Der Wienersnitzel, Jack in the Box, and so on, whose drive-throughs are equally vulnerable?
I admit, I thought it was a cute concept at first. But I can't shake the thought that there is a real scam going on here, and it ain't the folks on camera being victimized...